ABC News is consistently ranked as the most trusted source of news in Australia, but despite that it regularly attracts critics from both the left and the right who accuse it of bias.
At the same time, there are often serious questions raised about how well the ABC performs when it comes to delivering accurate, impartial and valued news at a regional, state, national and international level.
While defending the ABC from unfair attacks, the Alumni will also raise the concerns of its own members when it feels the ABC has fallen short of its charter responsibilities.
Australia’s defamation laws have had a significant chilling effect on investigative journalism in Australia. In an extended two-part essay, Alumni Chairman Jonathan Holmes teases out the issues. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.
ABC Alumni has facilitated discussion and debate on the issues of balance, impartiality and opinion that often arise when critiques of ABC News are made.
Alumni also looked at the decision to create a new Ombudsman role at the ABC, and the impact that might have on editorial complaint handling.
Alumni has been arguing for some time now that there needs to be more attention given to state-based news and current affairs. This article pushes for the reintroduction of Stateline.
And Anne-Maria Nicholson has decried the poverty of arts reporting on ABC News
Recent public criticisms of the ABC's news coverage and management have been the subject of a series of Alumni Articles. Criticisms of the ABC's coverage of Israeli/Middle Eastern affairs have been addressed in a July 2025 article by Jonathan Holmes, Antisemitism, Impartiality and the ABC and the ABC and in the Alumni's submission to the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in March 2026. Controversial public and online comments by Laura Tingle (June 2024) and Antoinette Lattouf (June 2025) and ABC management's response (August 2025) were the subject of three articles. And in Deception in the eye of the Beholder Jonathan Holmes favourable compares the ABC's handling of these public controversies, with the BBC,
ABC Alumni has argued the case for the Government to provide additional tax incentive streaming and social media companies to enter commercial deals with the ABC as part of their News Bargaining Initiative proposals. The ABC has responded to initial calls for consultation on the proposals (December 2025), on the draft legislation (March 2026), and consultation on the distribution of funds collected from those social media and streaming companies who have failed to reach thresholds in terms of number and value of commercial deals (March 2026).